resilience of mustard

hopefully this weekends walk was the last i’ll be taking in the snow for some time. i was pretty certain that we were done with the white stuff weeks ago but it just keeps coming. i’m not sure why i am complaining about it, i’d rather bike in a light snow storm than a light rain. as i type this i’m thinking about the rain gear i need to slip on to get to work.

much like the snow – these mustard greens just seem to keep coming and coming.

i noticed them, one of the few plants poking out of the snow when nothing else does, while out walking. it as though they are thermogenic and melting the snow away around them.

most remarkable about these greens is that my friend donna that tended this lot planted them over three years ago and they still hold on. a few feet from a busy street, with major exposure on all sides, no protection from the wind.

donna herself showed remarkable resiliency, showing up every day to tend her garden in the hottest of conditions, despite obstacles that would have set back the average person, certainly it would have stopped me. she would have these horrific stories of the previous nights challenges, of getting attacked sleeping in the park or having things stolen from her at the shelter. these mustard greens remind me, that often it is the most unexpected that have the most strength. detroit lately has seemed a place full of people coming in with lessons to teach detroiters. i feel so very lucky to have moved to detroit to learn from detroiters. to be open to the lessons that i could be taught. they have taught me more than i could have ever taught them. and i’m so much better a person for it.